Born in Mayville, Dodge County, Wisconsin in 1865, woodworker Frank Fell began working for the Mayville Furniture Company in 1884. When the manufactory closed in 1904, Fell purchased its lathe and opened his own woodturning shop in his Mayville home. He was best known for his German-style spinning wheels, selling on average 300 wheels each year. Fell also created also made what a 1907 receipt describes as "artistic turned work": tilt-top tables, side tables, footstools, lamp bases, and candlesticks such as the examples shown here.

Sources

"Reveals Use of Homespun" Milwaukee Journal, November 9, 1930; Frank Fell obituary, Mayville News, June 5, 1935; Victor Hilts and Patricia Hilts, "Not For Pioneers Only: The Story of Wisconsin's Spinning Wheels" Wisconsin Magazine of History 66:1 (1982), available online from the Wisconsin Historical Society: http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/u?/wmh,47529 Related materials on file at the Mayville Historical Society include receipts, labels, advertisements, and an account book as well as images of Fell's home, workshop and workbench.